Tabriz Rugs

Tabriz-Rugs

Tabriz-Rugs & Carpets

The David Sylvester Northwest Persian Carpet

London, Olympia, David Sylvester: The Private Collection Sale L02959 lot 88

A Northwest Persian Carpet, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY London, Bond Street 8,000—12,000 GBP Session 1, 26 Feb 02 2:30 PM MEASUREMENTS 243 by 162 cm., 8 ft by ft 4 in DESCRIPTION TECHNICAL ANALYSIS Warp: Cotton, ivory, Z6S Weft: Cotton, ivory, 2 shoots, Z3S Pile: Wool, symmetrical knot, Z2 V/Hcm: 5/5 Sidecords: Not original Ends: Remnants of original finishes and 1cm extant of blue plain weave Colours: Indigo, sea-blue, madder, pale madder, green, pistachio-green, walnut, ivory (8) Provenance: Furstin Machthilde Lichnowsky K.J. Hewett, London Published: Jacoby, Heinrich, Eine Sammlung Orientalischer Teppiche, Berlin, 1923, p.6, fig.8.

The lot offered here is a wonderful example of the assimilation of designs in the border region of Azerbaijan. Turkey, Persia and the Caucasus have all stylistically influenced the designs of weavings from this area.

The field design of this fragment with its endless repeat of blossoming palmettes and flowerheads counterbalanced by elongated arabesques is reminiscent of the use of the arabesque in Esfahan 'strapwork' carpets such as in the P. W. French and Company 'Tabbagh' Esfahan carpet, early to mid 17th century, see Pope, A. U., A Survey of Persian Art, London and New York, 1939, pl.1215. From carpets such as the 'Tabbagh' Esfahan the design became increasingly stylised as can be appreciated in pieces such as the 'Bardini-Bingham' Kirman carpet 17th century see Dimand, M.S. and Mailey, Jean, Oriental Rugs in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, fig.119, cat.no.47, p.113. For a full discussion of 'strapwork' carpets and field prototypes see Bennett, I., Isphahan Strapwork Carpets, Hali 41, 1988, pp. 35-43. This particular design then developed further and became know as the 'Garrus' design in the late 18th/early 19th century, designated as such after a group of carpets commissioned by a notable of the district of Garrus, see Ittig, A., A Group of Inscribed Carpets from Persian Kurdistan, Hali, Vol.4, No.2, 1981, pp.124-127.

The stylisation and angularity of the design in the present lot together with the much more abstract floral representation link it to the carpets of the Caucasus and in particular the 'dragon' carpet group, see Yetkin, S., Early Caucasian Carpets, Vol II, London, 1978, for a discussion of this group. There is a strong similarity in the abstraction of the present piece and the 'dragon' carpet in the Iparmüveszéti Museum Budapest illustrated in Yetkin, op.cit., p.14, fig.124. There is an even closer similarity if one compares the present lot to a Caucasian floral carpet such as the one formerly in the collection of M.S. Haim, Istanbul, illustrated in Yetkin, op.cit., p.46, fig.167. As in the Lichnowsky/Sylvester carpet the palmettes, floral motifs and arabesques are less curvilinear in their interpretation than Persian floral carpets of the same date.

It is interesting to point out that although this carpet may appear to be a fragment on first inspection, it has remnants of the original end finishes and of the light blue kilim ends.

For a comparable piece see Sotheby's London, 27th April 1994, lot 150. The design of both pieces is similar although in the Lichnowsky carpet there are no complete cartouches but two half cartouches at either side of the field and two quartered cartouches at each corner.

Picture and Information from www.Sothebys.com

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Thanks and best wishes,

J. Barry O'Connell Jr.

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